WASHINGTON, D.C. - The American Immigration Lawyers Association
(AILA), along with a broad coalition of immigration advocates,
announced their opposition to a bill aimed at reorganizing the
Immigration and Naturalization Service. AILA said the so-called
Immigration Reorganization and Improvement Act (IRIA) fails to
address major problems at the INS. AILA also said the bill would
hinder INS enforcement and adjudication.

"The bill doesn't go far enough in reforming the INS. It would
make a bad situation worse. It would hurt both enforcement and
adjudication," said Jeanne Butterfield, Executive Director of
AILA. "While the bill separates the enforcement and adjudication
functions, it provides no accountability, no coordination between
the enforcement and adjudication arms of the agency, and provides
no adequate financing mechanism. The lack of funding and
coordination will hurt services that are in this country's
interests."

The IRIA would break the INS into two separate agencies, one
dealing with enforcement and the other with adjudication. Under
the bill, the Attorney General would appoint the heads of each
bureau, and the Department of Justice would oversee shared
computers and databases. Functional allocations would be
transferred to the new bureaus. However, the bill states that
the Attorney General can transfer funds between the divisions for
up to two years.

"We are concerned that, under this scheme, enforcement would
receive funds allocated by Congress, but adjudication would be
forced to rely solely on user fees. That is how the INS wound up
with its current naturalization backlog of 1.8 million people,
and its nearly three-year backlog in processing green card
applications. Already people are not getting the services they
are paying steep fees for. This bill will only exacerbate those
problems," Butterfield said.

In addition to the funding problems, Butterfield noted that the
bill gives lip service to coordination. The measure calls for
shared resources between the enforcement and adjudication arms,
but does not require it. "If the two wings do not share
information and resources, then coordination is an empty promise
that will result in more delays, and hurt INS efforts to improve
the agency's enforcement activities," Butterfield said. "And
efficiencies as the result of shared infrastructure will be
lost."

Butterfield concluded by saying, "Now is the time for real
reform. False promises and false reform will get in the way of
enforcing the immigration laws, enabling people to become
citizens, reuniting families, and allowing businesses to obtain
needed workers."